Sliding doors, and especially sliding doors that are suspended from a rolling carriage, have a tendency when moved to reach the end of their travel path, and rebound off an end stop. The door then remains slightly ajar or not completely open.
Further, designing a simple latch for a sliding door, and in particular a sliding door that is able to be received into a cavity for the door in its open condition, is problematic. This is because the latch must preferably not extend transversely outwardly from the direction of movement of the sliding door as it may damage the cavity into which the door is receivable. It is preferable for such latches to extend outwardly from the door in the plane of the door. However, in order to latch with a suitable strike, the latch requires further movement transversely to the initial extension direction. Such mechanisms are typically complex and hence costly.
For indoor sliding doors, and especially sliding doors receivable into a cavity, there is a requirement for a clean looking, simple, latching system that may be moved to a locked condition by a snib or key.
In this specification, where reference has been made to external sources of information, including patent specifications and other documents, this is generally for the purpose of providing a context for discussing the features of the present invention. Unless stated otherwise, reference to such sources of information is not to be construed, in any jurisdiction, as an admission that such sources of information are prior art or form part of the common general knowledge in the art.
For the purposes of this specification, the term “plastic” shall be construed to mean a general term for a wide range of synthetic or semisynthetic polymerization products, and generally consisting of a hydrocarbon-based polymer.
For the purpose of this specification, where method steps are described in sequence, the sequence does not necessarily mean that the steps are to be chronologically ordered in that sequence, unless there is no other logical manner of interpreting the sequence.